Anchor My Faith

Previous Lesson
Next Lesson
Author: Stephen Weller
559 words, 3 minutes read time

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Scripture: Matthew 23:38-39; Luke 13:34-35

In the previous lesson, we managed to get through some difficult verses but didn’t quite finish the section. We will finish up a very long major section with this lesson.

^{Lk 13:34} “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁵ Behold, your house is forsaken, ^{Mt 23:38} left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’””

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem” brings to mind the time Jesus was at Martha’s home teaching and Mary was seated at his feet. Martha was busy preparing for her guest and was growing in frustration because Mary was not helping. She finally reaches the breaking point and tells Jesus to have Mary come and help, but instead Jesus responds with, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things” (Luke 10:41 ESV). Here Jesus responds in a similar fashion as he bemoans the fate of Jerusalem, but this would also include all of Israel since Jerusalem was the religious and political center of the nation.  

“Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it,” should have been a place to learn about God and his way of salvation, but it was a city that caused people to suffer under imposed burdens; not a city to show its people how to be set free.

How Jesus wanted to gather its people together like a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but they were not willing. Jesus wanted to be “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions” (Deuteronomy 32:11 ESV), but they were like those described by Paul in Romans 3:10 – 12 ESV: 10 “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

“Your house is forsaken, left to you desolate” could refer to the temple, but possibly here it refers to Jerusalem’s leadership, which will collapse with the destruction of the temple.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” is a quote from Psalm 118:26, and in citing this Jesus is identifying himself with God’s Messiah and Savior who will once again come to his people, but only after a time of great judgment, when they will finally be ready to receive him.

Conclusion

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV). Jesus stands before them as their Messiah, but he is rejected by them. As a result, Jesus laments over them saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” How willing are you to follow Jesus?